Thousands of people are set to descend on London this Saturday to protest against austerity measures.

Hundreds from Bristol will be joining the masses in the capital, as the Bristol People’s Assembly rallies its supporters.

In an opinion piece published in the Speakers Corner section of today's Bristol Post, Owen Lloyd-Jones and Jack Hazeldine say why they think other Bristolians should join them.

This Saturday, at least four coachloads of Bristolians will join tens of thousands of people from across the country on the streets of London to demand an end to the Tory austerity government and Theresa May’s disastrous tenure as Prime Minister.

Jack Hazeldine in front of protest (Image: Alex Scandellari)

They’ll be demonstrating to demand another General Election for the Autumn is called now, so that this government, without a real mandate, which has now fallen well behind in the polls, can be safely removed and replaced with an ‘anti-austerity’ alternative.

A better alternative that would be willing to invest in essential public services, tax the rich, provide decent jobs and boost faltering living standards for the many, and would face continued public pressure to do all this and more.

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Bristol supporters of The People’s Assembly – the campaign organising the demonstration – are calling on Mayor Marvin Rees, his council cabinet and other councillors, to join them and show unity (or send messages of solidarity) with the many ordinary people who are protesting in order to make their voices heard: to demand an end to the cuts and privatisation which are, among other things, decimating local government and services.

Protest isn’t everything they say, but the current situation demands it.

Jack Hazeldine (Image: Alex Scandellari)

This week, after protracted negotiations with a handful of Democratic Unionist MPs, the weak, the wobbly and twice-unelected leader of the Tory party agreed a deal to allow her to stagger on as Prime Minister of a minority government, in exchange for a handsome pay-off of £1bn for their pet projects.

There are many reasons to oppose this recent turn of events: the whiff of bribery; the fact it leaves some of the most complex and far-reaching negotiations in our nation’s history in the hands of a minority government who can’t command a parliamentary majority; the incompetence at the heart of the May administration, exposed by the General Election campaign; and not least the fact that it appears to jeopardise the Good Friday agreement which has secured a fragile peace in Northern Ireland for almost two decades.

Grenfell protest in Bristol (Image: Alex Scandellari)

All of these are important issues, but the cash thrown at the DUP has brought the spotlight onto a wider issue which has underpinned almost every aspect of government policy going back to 2010 and beyond: the failed austerity agenda.

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Maintenance projects are tendered out to the lowest private sector bidder, leading to cut corners which cost lives, such as the Grenfell Tower disaster this month where hundreds are suspected to have lost their lives in return for a £5,000 saving for the contractor.

Justice 4 Grenfell protest (Image: Alex Scandellari)

We have been told, endlessly, by politicians that we have no choice, we need to save money.

The cupboard is bare” they claim, as they hand billions of pounds of tax cuts to the richest in society.

We all need to make sacrifices” comes the cry, as more public assets are sold off at bargain basement prices.

The thing is – as many more have now realised – it doesn’t work.

Cuts, cuts, cuts (Image: Alex Scandellari)

Economists have warned for years about the negative effects of cutting budgets. Even big institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank eventually urged a more balanced approach.

Austerity was always a political choice, a decision to let ordinary people foot the bill for a crisis rooted in financial speculation.